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partly governed by this worst kind of pride, and partly by the

wish of retaining Mr. Bingley for his sister.

The agitation and tears which the subject occasioned, brought

on a headache; and it grew so much worse towards the evening

that, added to her unwillingness to see Mr. Darcy, it determined

her not to attend her cousins to Rosings, where they were engaged

to drink tea. Mrs. Collins, seeing that she was really unwell,

did not press her to go, and as much as possible prevented her

husband from pressing her; but Mr. Collins could not conceal

his apprehension of Lady Catherine's being rather displeased by

her staying at home.

Chapter XXXIV

When they were gone, Elizabeth, as if intending to exasperate

herself as much as possible against Mr. Darcy, chose for her

employment the examination of all the letters which Jane had

written to her since her being in Kent. They contained no

actual complaint, nor was there any revival of past occurrences,

or any communication of present suffering. But in all, and in

almost every line of each, there was a want of that cheerfulness

which had been used to characterize her style, and which, pnv

ceeding from the serenity of a mind at ease with itself, and kindly

disposed towards every one, had been scarcely ever clouded.

Elizabeth noticed every sentence conveying the idea of uneasiness,

with an attention which it had hardly received on the first perusal.

Mr. Darcy's shameful boast of what misery he had been able to

inflict gave her a keener sense of her sister's sufferings. It was

some consolation to think that his visit to Rosings was to end on

the day after the next, and, a still greater, that in less than a

fortnight she should herself be with Jane again, and enabled to

contribute to the recovery of her spirits, by all that affection

could do.

She could not think of Darcy's leaving Kent, without

remembering that his cousin was to go with him; but Colonel

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